National Republican., 1887-08-01
OUR OCCUPATION IN HEAVEN
REV. DIR. TALMAGE DIsCouRsEs PRAO.
TlCALLY on THE SUBJECT.
The Prominent characteristics of Our
Earthly Arem perament4 win Remain
with Us and Our Employment VIII
he But Little Changed.


on the "Employments of Heaven" and his
text, the first verse OF the first chapter of the
Ezekiel. "Now II came to pass In the thirtleth
year. in the fourth month, IN the fifth day OF
the month, rs was among the captives by the
river of Chebar that the heavens were
opened"
Ezekiel, with Others had b.ou expatriated,
and while In foreign slavery was standing on
tho banks Of the royal canal which he aud
other serfs had be en- condemned to dig by tho
order of Nebuchadnezzar-thls royal canal, In
the text, called the river OF Chebar-ths Illus
trious exile had visions of heaven. Indeed.
It is almost always so that the brightest
visions OF heaven come not TO those who are
on mountain top of prosperity, but to so ne
John on desolate patmos or to some Paul in
Mamertine dungeon, or to some Ezekiel stand.
ing on the banks of ditch he had been CON.
peiIed to dig-yea, to the weary, to the heart.
broken, 10 those whom sorrow has banished.
The text is very particular TO give us the ex.
act time Of the vision. IL was In the thirteth
year and in the fourth month and in the NTH
day Of the month. SO you have had visions OF
Garth you shall never forget You remember
the year. you remember the month, you re.
member the day, you remember the hour.
Why may we not have some such Vision this
morning, and 1t be In the seventh month and
In the thirty-irst day OF the month";
Tho question Is often silently asked, though
perhaps never nudlbly propounded, "What
are our departed Christian friends doing now2"
The question is more easily answered than you
might perhaps suppose. Though there has
come no recent Intelligence from the heavenly
city, ond we seem dependent upon the story 81
eighteen centuries ago. still | think we my
from strongest inference decide what are the
present occupations Of our transferred kinsf1lk.
After God has made O nature he never
eradicates the chief characteristics of its tenn
permanent. Iouneyer knew man phlcgmatiC
In temperament to become sanguine in tenn
perament. You meyer knew man sanauine
In temr erOmeut to become phegna.ic in tenn
Ierament. Conversion plants new principles
IN the soul, but Paul and John arc just rs
different from each other after conversion as
they were different from each other before con-
version. III conversion doas not eradica.e the
prominent characteristics of the temperament
neither will death eradicate them.
You have. then, only by sun, In subtraction
and q sum in addition to decide what are the
employments of your departed friends in the
better world You are to subtract from them
all earthly grossness, and add all earthly
conclusion that they are doing now In heaven
what in their best moments they did on earth.
The reason 10 many people never start for
heaven Is because they could not stand 1t If
they got there ii 1t should turn out to be the
rigid and formal place some people photo
graph II.
want 10 stay here to next Christmas We like
to hear the Halleujah chorus, but we would
not want to hear 1t oil the time for fifty CEN
turtles. 1t might he on some great occasion II
would be possibly comfortable to wear a crown
oil gold weighing several pounds, but 1t would
be an affection TO wear such crown forever
In other words VIC run the descriptions OF
heaven into the ground while we make that
which was intended as especial and celebra-
tive TO be the exclusive employment of the
terite The hehiis Of Americar, society describe
Decoration Day, or Fourth of July, or aa
autumnal Thanksgiving as though 1t were all
the time that way.
lam not going 10 speculate in regard to the
future world, but must by inevitable laws of
inference and deduction and common sense
conclude that in heaven we will be Just us
different nom each other as we are now differ
ent, and hence that there will be at least as
many different employments In the celestial
world as there are employ ments here: Christ
is to be the great love, the great 10y, the great
rapture, the great worship of heaven; but will
that abolish employment No more than loves
on earth--paternal, 1llal, fraternal, coniugal
love, abolish earthly occupation.
In the first place, remark that all those OF
our departed Christian friends who OIL earth
found great JOY In the fine arts are now indul-
ging their tastes in the same direction. On
earth they had their gladdest pleasures amid
pictures and slatuary, and in the study of the
laws OF light and shade and perspective. Have
you any IDEA that that aillucnee of faculty at
| teath collapsed and pcrished? Why so. when
| II ere is more for them to look Mt, and they
have keener appreciation of the beautiful, and
| they stond amid the very looms where the sun.
| sets and the rainbows and the spring mornings
ore woven?
Are you so obtuse as to suppose that because
chise and the engraver his knif,, that therefore
II at taste which he was enlarging and intensl
flying for forty or fifty years Is entirely obit-
| Grated? These nrtitts, or these friends of art,
on earth worked In coarse material and with
| imperfect brain and with irail hand. Now
| they have carried their art into larger liber-
ties and into wider circumference. They are
| at their old business yet, but Without the
| fa,igues, withoat the limitations, without the
hindrance ofthe terrestrial studio.
| Raphael could now improve upon his mas
| tefpicce Of Michael, the Archangcl. now that
| he has seen him, and could improve upon his
masterpiece OF the Holy Family now that he
| has visited them. Michael Angelo could bot
| ter present the Last Judgment after he has
| seen its flash and heard the rumbling batter
ing rams Of its thunder. Exquisite coors here,
| graceful lines here. powerful chiaroscurO here:
But am persuaded that the grander studios
| md the brighter galleries nre higher up by
the winding marble stairs OF the sepuicher
| and that Turner, and Holman, Hunt and
| Rembrandt, and Titan, and Paul Yeronese, II
| they exercised saving faith in the Christ whom
| they portrayed upon the canvas, are painters
od Tie U reason That Goa took
| aw0y their eye and their hand, and their brain
| was that He might give them something more
| timber, more wieldy, more skilliul, more null
| Do not, therefore, he melancholy among the
| tapestries and the bl!c-a-brac and the en-
broideries and the water oolors aud the works
| Of art which your departed friends used to ad.
i,aye all these things" Rather say: 81 am
glad they have gone, up to higher artistic op,
found so much Joy in the fine arts on earth are
row in1uriating In LouYres and Luxembourgs
| rema, k again that all our departed Chris
tian friends who In this world were passion
ately fond OF music are still RECALLING that taste
in the world celestial, The Bible says SO much
al be fguratiye. The Bible over and
Of heaven. II heaven had no songs Of its OWE oSa
1 gNf s,N la,r..
been taken up by the earthly emigrnnts.
Surely the Christian at death does not lose his
| memory. Then there mnst be millions OF souls
| 10 heaven who know Coronation and AN
| tloch" and "Nount PIsgqh" and "old Hun
dred." The leader of the eternal orchestra
need only once tap his baton, and all heaven
pliment some exquisite, singer by saying
"There was SO much soul In her music" In
4 w be All sSS pa he boa
then there will be an additional heaven. Can
not the soul hear z II II can hear then
| In your household when some member leaves
| for heaven, as 1t Is In some households, that
you close the piano and unttring the harp for
yesS because he SYEss ssat Ssed
that they have better instruments OF music
You ask me; "po they have real harps and
real trumpets and real organs?' / do not know.
| Some wseacres say positively there are no
such things In Heaven. do not know, but !
should not be surprised If the God who made
| all the mountains and all the hills and all the
forests and all the metals OF the earth and all
| the growths of the uniyerse-l should not be
surprised II He could, II He had mind to-
make few harps and trumpets aud organs
Grand old Haydn, sick and worn out, was
carried for tho last time into the music hrll
and there he heard his own oratorio of the
Creation" History says that as the orchestra
| came to that famous passage: "Let there be
lightln the whole audience rose and cheered,
| and HAYDN waved his hand toward Heaven
| and said: ut comes from there"
Overwhelmed with his own music. he was
carried out In his chair and az he came u the
door he spread his hand toward the orchestra
as In benediction.
/ Haydn was right when nc waved his hand
toward heRyen aud sa,d ut comes from
| there
| kusin ,roe hnr,, In hnnvpn and II will oyN,